one another and may be said to derive their vocal effect partly from
contrast of letters, but in which it is impossible to assign a precise
amount of meaning to each of the expressive and onomatopoetic letters.
A few of them are directly imitative, as for example the omega in oon,
which represents the round form of the egg by the figure of the mouth:
or bronte (thunder), in which the fulness of the sound of the word
corresponds to the thing signified by it; or bombos (buzzing), of which
the first syllable, as in its English equivalent, has the meaning of
a deep sound. We may observe also (as we see in the case of the poor
stammerer) that speech has the co-operation of the whole body and may
be often assisted or half expressed by gesticulation. A sound or word
is not the work of the vocal organs only; nearly the whole of the upper
part of the human frame, including head, chest, lungs, have a share in
creating it; and it may be accompanied by a movement of the eyes, nose,
fingers, hands, feet which contributes to the effect of it.

The principle of onomatopea has fallen into discredit, partly because
it has been supposed to imply an actual manufacture of words out of
syllables and letters, like a piece of joiner's work,--a theory of
language which is more and more refuted by facts, and more and more
going out of fashion with philologians; and partly also because the
traces of onomatopea in separate words become almost obliterated in the
course of ages. The poet of language cannot put in and pull out letters,
as a painter might insert or blot out a shade of colour to give effect
to his picture. It would be ridiculous for him to alter any received
form of a word in order to render it more expressive of the sense. He
can only select, perhaps out of some dialect, the form which is already
best adapted to his purpose. The true onomatopea is not a creative,
but a formative principle, which in the later stage of the history of
language ceases to act upon individual words; but still works through
the collocation of them in the sentence or paragraph, and the adaptation
of every word, syllable, letter to one another and to the rhythm of the
whole passage.

iv. Next, under a distinct head, although not separable from the
preceding, may be considered the differentiation of languages, i.e. the
manner in which differences of meaning and form have arisen in them.
Into their first creation we have ceased to enquire: it is their
aftergr